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The Film Snob's Dictionary Vol. 2

OK, the article about Bonnie Fuller in Vanity Fair has derailed the cinetrix, perhaps permanently, from reading the rest of the hateful Hollywood issue. Fortunately, I looked at this year's edition of the Film Snob's Dictionary [or how to speak fanboy film geek] first. A few of my favorite entries:

Doc Films: The film society at the University of Chicago, founded in 1932 as the Documentary Film Group. Hard-core beyond words and lay comprehension, the society is populated by 19-year-olds who have already seen every film ever made, and boasts its own Dolby Digital-equipped cinema and an impressive roster of alumni that includes Snob-revered critic Dave Kehr.

Meditation on. Stock hack-crit phrase used to bestow an air of erudition and gravitas on both the critic and the film he is reviewing. Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation is an affecting meditation on cultural and temporal dislocation; the Matrix series is the Wachowski brothers' meditation on the intersection of technology and spirituality.

Movieness. Stock hack-crit term used, like a more fun version of postmodern, to denote a director's or viewer's hyperawareness of filmic conventions and techniques. Watching Kill Bill's gory, kinetic fight scenes, you can sense Tarantino exulting in the sheer movieness of moviemaking.

Murch, Walter. Exacting, innovative sound designer who was cultivated by Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas early in their careers; for Snobs, the genius of film sound. An eccentric, intelligent polymath, Murch dabbles in the other aspects of filmmaking--he co-wrote the screenplay to Lucas's THX-1138 and edited The English Patient and Cold Mountain--as well as beekeeping. I'm not easily impressed, but Murch's work on the opening sequence of Apocalypse Now was next-level shit.

Fun fact to know and shout: Aggro right-wing screenwriter-director John Milius was the inspiration for John Goodman's Nam-obsessed character in the Coen brothers' The Big Lebowski.

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The Film Snob's Dictionary Vol. 2

OK, the article about Bonnie Fuller in Vanity Fair has derailed the cinetrix, perhaps permanently, from reading the rest of the hateful Hollywood issue. Fortunately, I looked at this year's edition of the Film Snob's Dictionary [or how to speak fanboy film geek] first. A few of my favorite entries:

Doc Films: The film society at the University of Chicago, founded in 1932 as the Documentary Film Group. Hard-core beyond words and lay comprehension, the society is populated by 19-year-olds who have already seen every film ever made, and boasts its own Dolby Digital-equipped cinema and an impressive roster of alumni that includes Snob-revered critic Dave Kehr.

Meditation on. Stock hack-crit phrase used to bestow an air of erudition and gravitas on both the critic and the film he is reviewing. Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation is an affecting meditation on cultural and temporal dislocation; the Matrix series is the Wachowski brothers' meditation on the intersection of technology and spirituality.

Movieness. Stock hack-crit term used, like a more fun version of postmodern, to denote a director's or viewer's hyperawareness of filmic conventions and techniques. Watching Kill Bill's gory, kinetic fight scenes, you can sense Tarantino exulting in the sheer movieness of moviemaking.

Murch, Walter. Exacting, innovative sound designer who was cultivated by Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas early in their careers; for Snobs, the genius of film sound. An eccentric, intelligent polymath, Murch dabbles in the other aspects of filmmaking--he co-wrote the screenplay to Lucas's THX-1138 and edited The English Patient and Cold Mountain--as well as beekeeping. I'm not easily impressed, but Murch's work on the opening sequence of Apocalypse Now was next-level shit.

Fun fact to know and shout: Aggro right-wing screenwriter-director John Milius was the inspiration for John Goodman's Nam-obsessed character in the Coen brothers' The Big Lebowski.